Elijah Valois trudged through the dimly lit alleys of Tenebrous, his eyes cast downward. His black hair fell across his pale face, framing his gaunt features. His Saturday shift at the clothing store had been grueling.
"Today's shift was quite exhausting." Elijah said as he dragged his feet across the path with a sigh escaping his mouth.
"I wish I was a strong vampire in combat, my life would have been more pleasant than this." Elijah said.
Then Elijah turned a corner, and he could see a group of vampires blocking his path. And their leader, Viktor, sneered.
"Look what we have here – the infamous Valois weakling."
Elijah's eyes flashed with anger, but he bit back his retort as he knew that he couldn't do anything against Viktor; someone who is much stronger than him in strength and combat prowress.
Viktor's gang then slowly closed in, their fangs baring at Elijah who was slowly moving back thinking of a way to escape.
"Hand over your pay, Valois," Viktor demanded.
"This is the sixth time you and your gang always ambush me to steal from me, why? What did I ever do to you? I'm weak, and hungry, I barely have enough money to feed but you guys keep coming." Elijah retorted angrily as he had enough.
"You have strength, and I'm sure you all work in the castle, with good enough pay for you all. So why bother stealing from me?"
"Because you are a waste of space that shouldn't exist in the first place. A weakling, that's what you are." Viktor shouted with his eyes glowing red; a trait among vampires.
"You hid, you hid when your parents were being murdered. You are a disgrace to we vampires. You don't even deserve to be in the world." Viktor said then he turned around to his gang of three young vampires.
"Take his money from him by force and also teach him a lesson!" Viktor shouted.
And immediately, the three vampires charged at Elijah who was slowly moving back. Since vampires were naturally fast beings, they were already in front of Elijah with their fingers naturally elongated to give them a sharp weapon to use.
And one of them swung their claw at Elijah who leaned backwards narrowly avoiding by the skin of his teeth. Then another one pushed forward towards Elijah and threw his claws at Elijah's stomach that only grazed it because Elijah was quite quick to react in avoiding it.
"Haha!" Viktor laughed. "Look at you, unable to even elongate your nails. How do you want to make it in the world of tough vampires?"
Elijah was partly listening while he kept narrowly avoiding all the hits but soon, the vampires were catching up with him since they were using more of a thing called teamwork which vampires rarely did.
One of the vampires threw his leg at Elijah's head that connected successfully sending him crashing to the ground with full force.
Then one of the vampires lunged at the fallen Elijah that was slowly trying to get up and he hit Elijah on the head with his claws causing Elijah to bleed and the force of the hit made Elijah to hit his head on the floor again.
This time, Elijah couldn't stand again as he watched the vampires rummaging his body looking for anything of value on him.
And finally, they got their hands on his money and they all walked back to Viktor who was now walking towards Elijah that was laying on the floor weakly looking at Viktor heading his way.
"I told you, keep your head bowed when a strong vampire is in front of you. You are just a waste of space here!" Viktor shouted as he kicked Elijah hard on his side sending Elijah's weak body skidding away.
Viktor and his gang now left Elijah who was laying on the floor staring at them leave.
As he watched Viktor's gang disappear into the night, Elijah's thoughts drifted to his parents. Aurélien and Eliane Valois – their memories haunted him still.
His parents had quite a high position in the world of vampires making them respected and since strength was everything for vampires, his parents were more respected therefore allowing little Elijah to live a life of luxury.
Elijah was fascinated with combat and would practically beg his father to teach him combat but his father would always refuse for one reason or another or he was simply at work or on a mission of some sorts.
But since there was nothing he could do, Elijah decided to enjoy his life of luxury while having private tutors coming in and teaching him the basics of vampires and their history.
Then one day, Elijah went out and when he came back, he could see their Manor's door open slightly. So he quickly went in to why it was open since they always kept their door closed.
Elijah walked in and could hear screams going on and things falling as if there was some sort of struggle. Fearing the worst, Elijah ran towards where he heard the sound.
And he could see someone on the floor with a red liquid flowing from them while two men stood in the centre in a fight. Elijah dashed towards the person on the floor and could see it was his mother who was laying dead.
With a pained cry, Elijah looked up just in time for him to avoid a crimson slash heading for him and then he heard his father's voice.
"Eli! Run away from here now! Don't look back! This is an order!" Elijah's father shouted and he quickly adhered to it by running far away while tears were streaming down his face.
Remembering all these, Elijah was still in the alleyway and tears were trickling down his face as he slowly stood up and dragged his feet trying to get away from the alleyway.
"Why me?" Elijah shouted as he sat down with his back rested on the wall and he was sobbing hard.
Then Elijah heard the city's bells tolled, signaling midnight.
Elijah quickly stood up and quickened his pace, his heart heavy.
Suddenly, a poster caught his eye:
"Vampire Strength Center - Pile Academy"
Looking at the pos
ter, a spark ignited within Elijah.
Perhaps it was time to change his fate.